There’s a need to step up private-public partnerships in the field of low-carbon development, the expert believes

MARRAKESH, November 17. /TASS/. Russian authorities are not considering renunciation of hydrocarbons as a tool for cutting down the atmospheric emissions of greenhouse gasses in the medium term, the Russian President’s special representatives for climate problems Alexander Bedritsky said on Wednesday as he took the floor a UN conference on climate underway in Marrakesh, Morocco.

He said the Russian government had gotten down to implementing a package of measures aiming to improve state control over greenhouse gasses emissions and to prepare the ratification the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

"One of the first step Russia will have to take as part of preparations for ratifying the Paris Agreement is to design of a long-term development strategy until mid-century pegged to low emissions," Bedritksy said. "Along with it, we are not considering a renunciation of hydrocarbons as an instrument for cutting down medium-term greenhouse emissions."

"It’s important to search for new precepts with account of the current situation and the prospective economic situation, the plans for social and economic development, and to take account of specific national factors and interests of different countries," he said.

Bedritsky pointed out the necessity of energy saving, innovative low-emission technologies of coal and methane utilization, the advent of new properties of the materials already in use, prevention of discharges into the ecosystem of Russian forests.

"Also, there’s a need to step up private-public partnerships in the field of low-carbon development sustainable in the conditions of climate change," he said. "In this context, all the (governmental) departments concerned are cooperating on a regular basis."

The UN-sponsored world conference on climate change is underway in Marrakesh from November 7 through November 18. It key topic is the designing of practical measures to implement the Paris Agreement on Climate Change that was signed on December 15, 2015, and took effect on November 4, 2016.